The employment numbers, released Tuesday by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget, aren't adjusted for seasonal fluctuations. State analyst Jason Palmer said the fluctuation was in part due to an increase in the number of people hired for the holiday shopping season.

November’s unemployment rate of 7.9 percent is nearly a percentage point better than 8.7 percent in October, and slightly worse than what it was 12 months ago, 7.5 percent.

The Muskegon-Norton Shores Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses Muskegon County, saw a total increase of 600 non-farm jobs over the last month.

Local jobless rates come from surveys of households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and don't reflect the percentage of people applying for jobless benefits. The jobs numbers are based on a separate bureau survey of the area's employers.

Asked about reports from Michigan Works! last month that people are moving back to the Muskegon area to work, Palmer said that the office doesn’t track migration data, but there are certainly more people in the area’s labor force working or looking for work than 12 months ago.

“What we do know, with the labor force expanding by 2.5 percent over the year, this is a sign of more people coming into the labor market,” Palmer said.

The Muskegon area’s workforce was 84,600 in November 2013, compared to 82,500 12 months ago in November 2012.